Treason™ Is The New Citizen’s Arrest And We Are All Stuck in Mayberry Hell

Somewhere on Twitter a poor, powerless soccer mom tweeted out a hyperbolic tongue-in-cheek call for a foreign invasion. In an instant, she was tried and convicted of treason by today’s version of a Gomer Pyle‘s Citizen Brigade.

This might sound crazy but who can really blame her ragtime mob of accusers? The stay-at-home moms, mechanics, insurance clerks, sound technicians — ordinary, everyday people — who volunteer in their spare time as social media military police are just parroting the rhetoric spewed on TV and printed in newspapers by the Barney Fife style “experts” and pundits.

It takes a short search of on any search engine or social media site and you will easily find media outlets and public figures referring to Donald Trump’s presidency as “treasonous.” If that’s too partisan for your taste, search “Obama treason” and the bipartisan scale will even out.

In today’s political climate, at any given time, anyone can be subject to the online version of “citizens arrest.” One person calls for protest, five others yell back, “Treason! Traitor!” Someone calls for ICE to be abolished, and is instantly met with an online choir chanting “Treasonous Traitor, Treasonous Traitor.” Our president states the same irreconcilable dribble he’s been tweeting for two years now at a Helsinki press conference and within a matter of minutes, #Resistance warriors pen their headlines, “Treason Alert, Treason Alert.”

Who the fuck are we kidding, folks?

We decided long ago to ignore war crimes committed by our past presidents. We decided long ago that it is patriotic to sweep under the rug America’s own history of murderous crimes. In doing so, we surrendered the right to label political enemies as traitors or call for trials of treason under the banner of American pride.

If we want to be a country of honor, we need to question our own history and acknowledge the countless victims of our imperial adventures. Until then, calls of treason are just people whistling in the wind of our Mayberry Hell.